Over the course of the off-season we’ll be looking back at some of the rookie seasons from 2012 in the hopes that we can get a feel for what their 2013 fantasy football season holds and whether or not we should target them in drafts. Today the review subject is Vick Ballard.

First off, the above image? One of my favorites from the fantasy football season in 2012. Wanna see it in gif action? Well here is your Vick Ballard impersonation of a flying Wallenda. You’re welcome. So what’s there to like about a guy whose last name makes you think of frizzy 80’s hair and bic lighters getting waved in the air as you sing to ‘Heaven Isn’t Too Far Away’ you ask? Well, that’s why we’re here of course and I’m not going to give you the goods right after a pic and one paragraph. Nay, you’re gonna have stick around for a bit to find out. So follow me as we break down Vick’s rookie year to see what we should come to expect from him for 2013 fantasy football…

Weeks 1-4: 46 yards, 22 touches, 2 targets, 0 touchdowns, 5.1 total points – Yeah, there’s really not much to talk about here of course. His high in touches in the first 4 weeks of the season came in week 5 against the Packers with a whopping 7 which was a third of his overall touches during that span. During this time, Donald Brown got lead back treatment and averaged a little under 16 touches per game and made it seem like we probably wouldn’t be talking about Vick at all for 2012.

Weeks 4-8: 314 yards, 63 touches, 11 targets, 1 touchdown, 40.9 total points – Halfway through the week, the fantasy sports world was told Donald Brown got hurt on the last play of the Packers game and had torn knee cartilage and would miss the game vs the Jets. The Jets had a very porous rush defense for most of 2012 so the rush was on to pick up Vick for the week. To say the results coupled with the touches – 42 total yards on 10 touches and 0 TDs – was underwhelming would be an understatement. Of course, he went on to score about 10 a game over the next three and is also where he scored that touchdown above.

Weeks 9-13: 241 yards, 56 touches, 8 targets, 1 touchdown, 33.1 total points – During this stretch, we got to learn just how little the coaching staff seemed to trust Ballard in and around the redzone and also marked the return of Donald Brown. Not a great combo for fantasy purposes but all things considered, he still tallied flex-worthy stats. This would be the last stretch of games that Vick would have to contend with touches from Brown as he would go on the IR for the final 4 games of the year.

Weeks 14-17: 365 yards, 87 touches, 6 targets, 1 touchdown, 44 total points – Now as I previously mentioned, Donald Brown was out so Ballard had a chance to show his mettle during this stretch. Well, at least he had a shot outside of the redzone. Even when Brown went out, the Colts refused to let him get the ball at goal to go. After Brown’s injury, the Colts signed Mewelde Moore for what seemed like running back depth. Instead, we got to watch in horror as the Colts drove the ball down the field on Houston in week 15 as Moore got most of the snaps on the third drive of the game. Vick already had 23 rushing yards on 5 carries by this drive but for some reason, Moore got to run the show. He promptly fumbled on the 1 and the Colts lost the game. Meanwhile, Ballard ended with 105 rushing yards on 18 carries. At the time, Vick was only the second running back to rush for over 100 yards against the Texans on the season. After that loss, the Colts went on to win their remaining games and Vick touched the ball 49 times during that span. Coincidence? I think not.

Conclusion: I like Vick. I like him for the price he’s most likely going to go at. He’s never going to win many 40 yard dashes against other defenses but he’s built well and fights for yardage. It’s the little things that can turn a 1 yard loss into a 2 yard gain and he never stops his legs from churning. Whether he’s running backwards or forwards, he’s always pushing the ball the right direction. In fact, some of my favorite runs are watching three guys pile on while Vick Ballard is running backwards for extra yardage. Overall, I don’t think we have a superstar on our hands but if he can get lead back touches in 2013, he’s going to be mighty valuable, especially if Andrew Luck improves on his own impressive rookie year and some of his 5 rushing touchdowns goes to the RB this time around. Needless to say, I’m going to be singing a power Ballard for Vick for 2013 Fantasy Football anywhere and everywhere I can.

HA I know. Site was well known for baseball and football came along later. Have a while before I build up a wild and frothy fan base like Grey and Rudy have…

Meeting was good; new software implementation and its still unclear how involved I’m supposed to be with that right now. Not really a big tech guy so I’m thinking I’m there for general knowledge. At least I hope that for everyone’s sake…

Good question. I’m not lying my title is ‘Assistant Director’. I think it’s a position that’s in flux and no one solidified when it went vacant a couple years back when I was hired. I work with test score uploads, matching rules and background fooferaw. Person I worked closely with recently retired and they’re talking about not replacing that position and it was a bit techie one. I might be learning something new here soon…yay…

@Sky: Insurance, I run the commercial side, he runs the personal lines side ie he does home and auto and I do businesses. He does life and health also. It’s not bad, good money when he retires and licensed in all 50 states

@Sky: Good to hear this has your approval, I don’t know what to make of Ballard and thought my hatred of Flacco might have got in the way of making a smart decision. My team is slightly less “elite” now though….

He’s a guy on the baseball side in my RCL, always talking trash on my conversations and man crushing with Grey, ran his mouth all through our draft, kinda lame. comes off real uppity. Its funny he got all chummy with my real life best friend in the RCL draft and has no idea that we are friends. Thinks I worship the ground of Razzball for all the info. I know I have told you this before but will re-iterate, that 80-90% of what you guys do i have come up with on my own and I love the site because i don’t have to do all the heavy lifting any more. I am a good player at this game but love all the community love we have in here. it makes me feel less like a weirdo. Dude is just an actual dick, he can go eat one. One thing I can’t tolerate are uppity motherf***ers. dude knows his baseball, just doesn’t like me.

I like you Sky, I have told you more about me than most of my real life friends. Being anonymous makes it a lot easier too. You don’t have to see the tears when i type. I have met some cool guys in here that share the same passion without being all weird about it. i have met some FBB’s and FFB’s in real life and most come off really pompous and knowledgeable when in reality they either play against weak ass opponents or will never admit that i might know more than them. Sometimes i tell them to just give me their login and passwords and to just shut the f**k up….ok, now i sound like a dick.

Yep, you’re preaching to the choir; it’s what made me come here was finding someone who thought like me. It was more confirmation of what I was already doing than world changing ‘oh, this is how you do it’. The fact the people on here are generally entertaining just made it all the better.

Yeah, I’ve never understood talking trash during drafts or in general. I’ll slap you back if you try it with me but in general I treat it like what it is: a game. I let my stats do the talking. Tehol was pretty mouthy for the start of the year in the writer’s league because he had a bunch of hot starts, but you’re never going to win when you draft Scherzer in the 4th and DOmonic Brown in the 8th. Just not gonna happen without some major luck.

Yeah, I like you too! Looking forward to a meet up here one day. Will just have to mosey down to Cali at some point. I think the thing about this site that attracts the right kind of people is the writing style. We take the subject seriously in terms of research but a lot of sites stop there and don’t actually make it entertaining. I like to think it attracts the intellectual players who actually understand the game but who enjoy actually reading what has been written for the humor aspect. No, I’m not talking myself up there, I’m mainly referring back to Grey, the maestro of fantasy funny without talking about mancrushing all the time (seriously, most humor derived from other fantasy sites are about being sexually aroused by a sleeper pick…funny sometimes not all the times).

the arousal is assumed, it’s the stalking crush that makes it funny ie trapper keeper is such a great reference. grey and the giancarlo is hilarious.

Don’t get me wrong, if people want to dish, i’ll dish. If you all want to cut on each other that is fine, but when people get all uppity it changes it. I will play just like i do in person, bust your balls but never come off like I’m better than you. I have shown some people razzball who are some sharp people and they felt like the comedy got in the way of the info. I think their brains get in the way of fun. I think you and jay do a good job of keeping the punny in funny here, and keep it loose. Jokes are good, they help get you through all aspects of life. I wish i would of studied more about writing in college so i could be good enough to write in here one day. All my writing was for my history major and in that discipline you are just creating arguments. never taken anything where i had to be creative. I told my best friend, who also reads the site, that it would be one of the coolest thing to write some pieces for razzball, I could print it out, take it home, put it on my mom’s fridge and be look like, ” look ma, i’m somebody, I have written on a semi-obscure website” and she would be “good job son, your cousin just got 2,000,000 hits on you tube” *runs away crying*

Yup. The difference between confidence and arrogance. Lotta people have a hard time with that one. Subtle but important difference between walking around with your head up vs your chest puffed out.

I like to think of Razzball being not for 101’ers. It’s a site that has good info but it assumes its audience has a general understanding of the game. ‘Braun is 1/18 and is struggling. I’d hold of course but if you have a better option to start while he gets his groove back I’d do that’…I mean, who needs that kind of info? You can read that from the daily notes in your league and even then I wouldn’t agree with the suggestion. I’d much rather assume you know he’s struggling and find something funny about having a stiff neck because he got cialis caught in his throught. Now THAT’s enjoyable. And yes, I love the trapper keeper reference from Grey as well along with the tramp stamps.

It’s funny, I never would’ve called myself a writer ever. I asked him about what blog format he thought would be best for a beginner and he asked me to try writing for Razzball. As an English major, I had pretty much the same education in terms of writing as you. Formulating the argument helps in this type of writing and for for being generally coherent but not the actual enjoyment factor for reading purposes. That part i have no idea; I feel like I sound like what I write like for the most part. My wife doesn’t read my stuff but when I started writing for the site I asked her to read something of mine and something of Grey’s. She said ‘Funny, he sounds just like you’. Ha!

Seriously, if you ever wanna give it a whirl and feel you have time just let me know. I didn’t think I could or would be doing this and yet here I am a year later.

BTW, I love Jaywrong and think he’s hilarious. I have a writer’s crush on him.

@Sky: this is turning into some weird menage a razz writers over here for me. I’m picturing you in a chicken costume running across the street from the dive motel the three of us got together to grab some flaming hot cheetos and batteries. while I’m tied up and jay…..ok, this is going too far.

This world can be for the 101 guys as long as they just take it in and read all the comments. There are lots of sharp guys in here daily *puffs up chest* I know some rookies in here that love that they can ask a question, and that not only Grey, but other razzers will chime in.

For me personally it’s a huge compliment when a commentor and I go back and fourth and I help them through their problem and Grey stays out of it. Lets me know my advice was sound. I also like when we have opposite answers on who to stream or who to pick up. Then I follow those two guys and see who wins. It’s always about winning damnit! On the flip side I hate when people get mad because they only want Grey’s opinion, like the rest of us are lacking the knowledge. It’s just a great interactive experience.

I’m chillin at the show last night checking my teams and the comments and this really cute asian chick across the bar gets my attention because she was ignoring the show for a minute too on her phone. Asks me what I’m doing and I said checking my fantasy baseball, she comes back with I’m checking in on the Dodger game. gave me the sexy wink and the wave, it was kinda hot, she didn’t give me the you’re a freak look.

This is my face book, which I think would be a cool addition to the site. People having their own page because I hate facebook, I don’t care about your personal life but tell me about your team

Agree re: 101, I was just saying in terms of needing every note of the day before spelled out like yahoo or ESPN does on their little note tabs. It’s not what these types of sites should be for! Don’t need a bunch of canned sounding responses to these types of things or else you could go to any site and there’ll be no difference.

Yeah I hear ya, I’ve never assumed a comment was Grey or else but some people are that way. I’ll chime in here and there if/when I have time, not as much as I used to though. It’s a good site for discourse and is hopefully viewed that way for the most part. Ha, Razzball Facebook: Fantasybook! Better than Facebook, not as sexually pleasing as F@#$book.

There should be and will eventually be more female fantasy baseball players. There are already a lot of fantasy football ones but the numbers on the baseball side will only go up when I’m too old for it to matter that I did it when it was nerdy and not when it got sexy. Like video games…now there are gamer girls. There were so few growing up and now seems like every girl, hot or not, is a gamer. Born before my time, Jack!

@Sky: when I get me shit in real life a little more organized and normal again I’ll hit you up on the writing and like Grey told me last year that you gotta have a thing, what are you going to write about every week that is relevant

Ah cool my man. Yeah, that part of the creativity process is important; I made the ‘Under The Greydar’ posts…ok, it’s still a sleeper post but it was unique for the site. I did a deep league thoughts as well in 2012, reviewing guys to avoid/target in deep league settings at the various positions. All under the Oregon Nut Cups moniker, of course.

@Sky: finding an angle that contributes and making it something that can be written about at least every other week is how I see it. Oh and has to be something I am interested in. From the baseball side, for example, the minor league guy is amazing, some of the best minor league reads I have found, and a great necessary niche. On the football side i am glad you have a IDP guy, but yet, I want that job. I love that shizz. I think football would be a little easier to write about, your average player is going to be less educated than baseball, so in reality, you could get away with making it a little more simple. But, to counter my own statement, to be on razzball takes a certain type of fantasy player. so it doesnt really matter.

It would be nice to write again where i actually put something into it and not just sloppy casual crap.

@Sky: got a trade vetoed and I’m pissed, i was trying to see how to handle these people being it’s my 20 man elimination league, I looked at who vetoed, it only takes four but must be posted, and they were all in direct competition. I have a scary good team, that got a little better and they got scared, which is a compliment and a point of contention.

Oh, I must’ve gotten things confused then. That’s silly. Well there should be a no trade clause effect put in place then. This is that league where you basically get to redraft each time a team gets eliminated right? If they don’t want a regular trade to go through, then don’t allow for trades. Simple.

@Sky: they allowed trades just not mine, some guy who had a glut of RF’s and I had glut of LF’s traded me Cruz for Marte. He was trying to survive the cut, and they hammered us fast, no other trade even the one I thought was more lopsided than mine’s got one veto vote. I told them they shouldn’t be scared to play someone at fantasy baseball, but by the team I drafted and the moves I’ve made, they must realize, ” all shit, we got a public player that knows whats up, damn! we got to deal with G O D Z I L L A A A !”

HA sounds annoying. Never understood guys being like that. It’s cheating, but they treat it like its a part of the game. A trade accepted by both sides that doesn’t involve collusion is an acceptable trade. Just because someone found the village idiot first doesn’t mean they should get penalized for it.

I have another trade thing for you, when someone has a glut of closers or in my case 1B, does that lesson their value because relative to your team and needs you can give them up for less because there is no point to winning saves by 50 or have usable players wasting away on the bench? I have always felt that if the loss of a player does not effect you then their value to trade is less than on a team that will feel it in the standings.

HA! I think so. But that’s why I allow trades without protest, even if they’re shitty.

I think to an extent you’re right but in all fairness, when you own a market, you should still be able to garner reasonable return and shouldn’t feel the need to sell for 75 cents on the dollar. Of course it also depends on time of season. Right now, I want 100% value returned. It’s too early to assume much. But as the season winds on, I am taking on less risk by dealing as the person buying most likely is getting only par of what they’ve needed since day one and if it fills needs for me, then I’m game.

@Sky: trying to work some deal for closers and I just don’t put a high value on them, trading for them has never been easy. I have never been willing to give up what others do, I assume every year that 50% of all closers will lose their job and thats usually becasue the guy closing is in less than a years service, how rare is it to find a guy that closes 5 solid years in a a row anymore, hell I’d take 3 years. My point is they come and go in the blink of an eye, like nacho cheese sauce from the circle-K.

Yeah Berry is a Schmuck but I’ve always adhered to ‘never pay for saves’ myself. In roto, it’s such a fluctuating market, you could get 3 saves for a paternity leave pickup or some ole elbow soreness. Definitely not worth spending big parts for.

@Sky: I started in Yahoo,last year was first in the E. I actually thought yahoo writers had a better format 5-6 years ago, now I don’t even waste my time with them. But I have also grown as a player and think I can do their jobs for a lot less money than yahoo pays them

Yeah, I don’t really read anything from either yahoo or ESPN anymore. For the most part, I stay self-informed and utilize Razzball not just for the writers but there are a lot of the good guys in the comments who keep people looped on what’s happening.

For baseball, I honestly haven’t ‘followed’ the right guys actually. I did lie when I said I didn’t really get into the writers over at yahoo, I actually like MIchael Salfino for his statistical pitching breakdowns and I follow him on twitter. Really, I follow a few and I have gotten info via retweet or by simply searching the name. Picked up Cingrani before everyone was even thinking about it by searching ‘Cueto’ on twitter. There’s a lot of reactionary stuff on there but for the most part, it’s a great resource because there’s always someone close to the situation who knows what’s up that’ll get retweeted by someone I know. It’s the 6 degrees of twitter separation.

@Sky: @Sky: not yet, one guy was thinking the same. The logic from one guy was that any trade involving any player pre 12th round will always be vetoed by him. I also was told that because I didn’t pay Marte every day and chose to split time with him and Viciendo based on matchups, made him less valuable for me. That Marte was unproven and has no track record and Cruz has been a solid contributor, the injuries don’t matter to him. Just a lot of blah blah bullshit. I can’t play in a league I am unhappy in. It’s one thing to struggle with your team it’s another to want to kick the crap out of the guys you play with. I want the latter

Yeah, they’re rationalizing their own version of cheating. Doesn’t matter what his value is to you, matters what Marte’s value is to the other guy. Lotta schmucks sounds like, not worth hanging around.

Any time there’s not collusion and a trade isn’t being allowed, it’s cheating in my book. They can give lame reasons over and over, in the end they’re not allowing the game to be played how it was meant to be. It really sounds like they should just put in a no-trade clause for the season. Would make a lot more sense anyway. I mean, you get to revamp your team once a month with the parts of another team. Makes complete sense to not allow trades rather than vetoing things for BS reasons.

@Sky: I just saw another e-mail where they are still posting and all they do is hide behind the rules, I used your rhetoric on cheating and told him he was an idiot and to go back to his crappy job he complains about. I’m pissed because I thought it was an interesting concept

@Sky: Im also pissed because this is the second league that I have felt turned into utter BS. The other is a keeper auction that I joined through someone in here last year and after the draft I have no intention of playing in this guys league next year, just haven’t got around to telling him. Some people do things that just make me scratch my head and wonder if they do what they do to feed their own ego’s and never really like to compete. Now two leagues that have turned it into horse shit. Now I only have rcl’s and razz league.

It’s amazing how many people do play out of ego. Is this a league of friends or people who’ve at least known each other for a while? Familiarity can bring that with it. Years of dominance makes people think they’re unbeatable so they don’t like new people coming on board, challenging their status. It’s funny, I’m getting bored of my keeper league for the same reasons a lot of people like you’re playing would enjoy it. I’d say ours has about 4 highly competent managers, 3 decent ones and the rest are some variation of clueless.

@Sky: it’s more under the surface, read between the lines. My actual buddy joined the same time I did and he is good at checking me when I’m being too crazy, and he even says this is a sneaky mother fucker. Making stats cat changes from year to year, opens for discussion, so we feel like we are a part of it, then through some very horrible rationalization, goes with his ideas, go figure, and then you look at how he obtained his winning team the year prior, the people he surrounds himself with and it starts to make sense. I don’t even want to get into the draft day debacle, those four hours of my life I will never get back, not sure why I just didn’t turn off my computer then and wash my hands of it. I think the only reason I play at this point is I like to rosterbate and it’s free porn.